Traitor to the people of Scotland, unpopular Nicola Sturgeon’s pro EU Remain stance cost the SNP very dearly, 21 MP seats in 2017, stupidity is a poor substitute for intelligence, this act of stupidity however could ripple down into the 2021 Holyrood election, and see the first Conservative Holyrood Government under Ruth Davidson

Dear All

There were one million Scots who voted to leave the EU in the referendum of 2016, this is an incredible number when you consider that the entire political and media establishment on both sides of the border were ranged against the people.

I have done a lot of campaigns in my time, and being in the EU campaign was one which I will always remember because it was done on a shoestring, with very little time, resources and people.

On the night of the count, some Leave activists in Glasgow were slightly down as Glasgow in every seat went Remain, I wasn’t, as I explained to them, it is the UK wide total that counts, and we had done very well. In three areas of the City of Glasgow, over 40% was achieved for Leave.

In the Pollok Constituency, I was leading the campaigning with very limited resources and no real support, managed to get 40.8% of the vote. One thing which I will always remember was my appearance as a panellist on the Gordon Brewer Radio show facing off against the distinguished Ming Campbell and SNP MEP Alyn Smith.

They lost the radio debate and they knew it, particularly Alyn Smith who leave the BBC fuming.

In Buchanan Street, I was one of the founders of the street stall which had a major impact in delivering what was a very respectable total of votes; basically three people started the ball rolling, Ben, James and me, the early attempts were not particularly productive until I joined the team. After the re-launch, the stall became a huge success and was joined by other people which saw the output go to several thousand leaflets a day handed out.

Many people who dropped by the stall weren’t just Unionists; we had a decent number of SNP supporters who expressed their support for the Leave campaign. Having conversations which them was a challenge because I put it to them that if they truly believed in Scottish Independence why did they would they want to hand over control to Brussels.

Either you believe in independence or you don’t, the SNP don’t believe in independence; that was clear from their pro EU stance, and as the records shows their efforts along with their cash was missing, they pushed the load onto the Unionist Remainers to carry. On the day of the vote in one of the biggest polling stations in Glasgow at Govan, the SNP didn’t turn up till 4.45 pm. They turned up at the Glasgow Count in droves to claim the ‘victory’ but hadn’t done any work. This was them doing spin. I saw Kezia Dugdale at the Glasgow Count and spoke to her in passing, I was surprised to see her, I suspected that there would be some sort of victory party which in the end didn’t happened.

As the results poured in, it became clear that the Remain Campaign had lost the vote, the early celebrations in hall at the Glasgow Count swiftly turned to shock; Nicola Sturgeon had yet again backed the wrong horse. She had been involved in two losing referendums and the people of Scotland had said no as part of the UK.

The SNP leadership see Brussels as a gravy train, and a place for future employment opportunities, and having that ripped away from them was unacceptable, you see it didn’t matter if the ordinary people of Scotland suffered by uncontrolled immigration or enforced migrant quotas, just as Nicola’s crew got their little ‘pot of EU gold’ to keep them in an elevated lifestyle.

The SNP under Nicola Sturgeon were willing to sell out Scotland rather cheaply.

SNP voters mainly working class were “driven away” by the party’s strong anti-Brexit stance. Having gambled that people would keep voting SNP regardless, the Nats woke up to the shock that the people weren’t as stupid as they hoped for, and as such this led to “heavy losses” at the General Election. Having shown their true colours, people saw the SNP leadership as they really are and what they are is shallow.

The damage that was down has accelerated the decline of the SNP vote, they went in the 2015 election which they expected to be a cakewalk and got handed their ass, 21 seats lost and others hanging by a handful of votes. This has been confirmed by the results and by an academic study of the vote. Academics from the British Election Study found 4 in 10 voters who backed the SNP in 2015 and then voted Leave switched to another party because of Europe. The Labour Party leadership under Corbyn has been quick to accept the vote because to put your face to the wind in respect of direct democracy is stupid.

Professor Ed Fieldhouse and Chris Prosser of Manchester University also found the Scottish Tories prospered by Nicola Sturgeon dropping the ball and to a certain extent so did Labour in Glasgow, next election three seats in Glasgow will see Labour allocate resources to it, Glasgow North East, Glasgow East and Glasgow South West.

The academics said:

“The EU referendum clearly cut across the divisions over Scottish independence.”

This was true, even an SNP member out of Sturgeon’s branch was active in the Buchanan Street stall; he was willing but not very experienced.

The referendums have been useful in establishing and defining Scottish voters political identities, the tricky part for the Scottish Conservatives comes next, can they managed to keep on-board everyone until the next Holyrood election when I suspect that they will mount a serious campaign to attempt to win the election and become the Scottish Government. In that election unlike this one in 2017, the Tories under Ruth Davidson will need a new game plan because they must fight in every constituency and that is a problem for them. To fight in every constituency requires a huge increase in Tory membership so that they can have activists fighting for every seat and the list vote.

Finally, prior to Nicola Sturgeon going on holiday, she announced a re-launch of her failed Government and by default leadership, this isn’t going to pan out well, the SNP is in a downward spiral and they know it. Can they change this around, well they have a few years but what they don’t have is a narrative.

Imagine where the SNP would have been politically if they had backed Leave?

Greed and stupidity however stopped this; some people can be ‘bought’ for a few pennies which sums up Nicola’s crew!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University